St. Valentine's Day Massacre with Pictures - True Crime
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
by Kevin Hammonds
Page 3 of 3
After a re-enactment of the crime, authorities concluded that the
two men dressed as policemen entered the garage and acted as if they
were police on a routine investigation. The Moran outfit automatically
assumed that they were policemen on a routine sting. It was obvious
that they didnt suspect anything questionable with the two uniformed
killers or they certainly would have never been killed without a
fight. But as it was, the mobsters seemed to have cooperated with the
costumed officers and consequently let the fake policemen disarm them
and force them up against the wall. As soon as their backs were
turned, the two men in plain clothes entered with guns and shot them
down.
Therefore, the eye-witnesses were somewhat accurate when they
claimed to have seen two policemen arresting two men. What they had
actually seen was four brutal murderers making their cleverly planned
get away. If a neighbor or neighbors looked out after such rapid and
explosive gunfire, what better way to calm their nerves, by letting
them think that everything was under control. And indeed it was under
control. The mysterious killers drove away into the night, long before
anyone thought to call the police, because the neighbors saw from
their windows that the police were already there.
As any mystery lover knows, a murder mystery would not be complete
without a clear and well defined conclusion, but in the case of the
St. Valentine's Day Massacre, it has every element of the mystery, but
the ending. Al Capone was never arrested for the crimes; the
mysterious gun men were never identified and Capone never graced a
reader or interested member of the public with an over dramatic
confession. Instead, he was blandly indicted for tax evasion some
years later and spent seven years in prison only to be released to
retire in Florida, where he died from Syphilis in 1947.
In many respects, the Valentine's Day Massacre follows the perfect
mystery blueprint up to the end. Although Capone never went into
complete detail on the events of the massacre, perhaps he did allude
to his future plans for that bloody Valentine's Day in 1929. A few
months prior to the murders, Al Capone mentioned to a fellow
"associate" his plan to take down Moran. Capone was told by the
"associate" that he would have to kill a lot of people in order to get
to "Bugs" Moran. It is rumored that Capone replied by simply saying:
"I'll send flowers."
